The start of something New

So...I'm sure you can tell in this picture what we are starting at our house!?!?!?Potty Training.  It's just day one and we've already been through three pairs of underpants...not bad.
The other new thing I'm starting is blogging by phone...this is my first post...maybe this will help me blog more often.

First Milestone

Here's our little one at one month old. Yes, this post is a little late, he is almost 7 weeks now, but I'm sure you'll understand the delay in my post. Things are going well, we are all enjoying our baby Jake, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it. I'm feeling great and am back to my ol' self. We plan on blessing him this weekend, can't wait. Enjoy!

Grandparents

We had some special people come and stay with us when the baby was born. They traveled a few days to get here and spent almost two weeks with us. I don't think I've ever had anyone come and stay/care for me and my family that long since Ben and I have been married. They kept all the clothes clean, the children happy, kitchen spotless, meals on the table, made the baby a quilt, and gave me great encouragement that I CAN do three little boys. I was sad to see them leave, but ready to see if I really could handle it all again. The house hasn't burned down yet, and for the most part I'm doing well...mostly because they took such great care of me. Thank you so much...We love and appreciate you!

Special Delivery

Jake arrived two weeks ago, on March 14th...he weighed 7lbs 10 oz and was 20 inches long. Things went rather quickly as far as his delivery...thank goodness. I'll save you the details. He's been a great addition...sweet, cuddly, laid back baby....We love him and feel so bless to have him in our family.

This is Max and Jake's first time meeting...Max was so cute, he wanted to hold him immediately and the next thing out of Max's mouth to his father was, "Take a picture of this little guy!"

Seth is doing really well with him too, he is still learner how to love Gently. He loves to know where he is and what he is doing. Yesterday, he even wanted to join in the feeding and asked if he could taste some Mommy Milk...of course I said heck no, go find your father...I'll be done in a minute.

Jake has rather large feet, they make me laugh every time I look at them

And long fingers...I love to look and study all of Jake's little features while I'm holding and feeding him.

He has just as much hair as the other boys did, except for it's a lighter than their hair was. He also has dimples...that is something new...can't wait til he can give us big smiles and we can see these dimples in action.

Ready and Waiting

I've never been prepared and ready for a baby before, I've always felt like I would have time and that it was too early to get things in order. For my first two pregnancies, that was not the case...They both came at a complete surprise, one at 38 weeks and the other at 36 weeks--I was caught with things half done or not done at all. This time I wasn't going to let that happen, I was going to ready...totally ready--not just have the house cleaned and all the baby stuff out, but I've even had time to let someone take maternity pictures of me, something I've never done before. Some say you should treat every pregnancy and baby like it could be your last (I'm not saying I'm done) and I feel like I've really tried to make this one special. It would be easy not to since it's my third boy, but I've done some real special things for him that I'm real happy about. Now for the first time I'm waiting with nothing really to do before this little one gets here except get more excited to see him and how he will be received by his big brothers.
Just like the others, we never have a set name for our baby until we finally meet him. We do have a small list of names we like, but if any of you out there have a favorite boy name you would like us to consider that would go well with our current names (Maxton and Seth) please put them in your comments.
The longest I have to wait is two weeks (my due date is the 26th), but maybe this little one will show himself soon. We are so excited to see you little baby Hale...come out, come out, whenever you can!

Receiving Blankets Tutorial {Part II}

Okay lets get this blanket sewed! Sorry it has taken me a couple of days to finish up this tutorial, but it take forever to upload pictures...no lie, it has taken me longer to put this post together then finish the blanket.

Pick a pinned side and sew straight down a quarter of an inch in.

This is what it looks like as you come to the end of one side...be sure that you've kept the bulk of the red fabric out of the way as you sew down...you only want the two edges to be sewed together...
This is what your side should look like after you sew.

This is how it should look as you go to do the next side...I've kept my red material out of the way in the corner, we will take care of all the corners later...also remember that when you come to your fourth side, leave a nice 7-10 inch opening in the middle so you can flip it right side out.

This is what it should look like in every corner once you've sewed up each side.

Here is a picture of the opening I've left on one side so that I can turn it right side out once it's time...don't flip it yet, we still need to take care of the corners.

The top of blanket before the corners and before I've flipped it right side out.

Picture of the back before corners have been sewed.

Now the corners....have your iron and ironing board ready...here is our first corner...they should all look like this.

Pinch and....

Fold it over...

Then grab the point at the top and fold down again...give it a nice pressing with your iron...you are trying to make a nice guild line of where to sew.

Here is my guild line after pressing and opening my fold.

Sew along that line.

Cut off the excess.

Picture of what it should look like after you've sewed, cut and opened up the area.

Do the same to the other three corners and then you are ready to turn right side out...your corner should look like this.

The side of the blanket should look like this when it's right side out.

Here I've located my opening and I'm preparing the area to be sewed up during my top stitch around the whole blanket...I've just folded the red down to meet up with the dino fabric and ironed it a little to stay in place for when I feed it through the machine.

This where I position my foot peddle for the top stitch...I like to pick a fun stitch, like a zig zag or any thing nice and thick and cool looking...that all depends on what your machine has to offer and what you like. Stitch all the way around and and your done!

Fold or roll up how ever you want...I usually roll up a few and tie with a strip of one of the fabrics or use a cute ribbon...it's kinda neat looking if you've made two or three for someone and they are all tied up together with a cute little tag....but that is all up to you. Obviously you can do several different things with this idea once you've put your mind around making your first one...you could do matching burp cloths (rectangular or whatever), etc. Have fun!

RBT {Part I}

I'm going to post a few more pictures so that maybe it might answer a couple of the questions already received...

This is the back of the pinned blanket...you are looking at the larger fabric and it is not smooth like the top fabric...it is kinda bubbly/bulky (essentially you are making the binding as you go, that is why the back fabric is larger...you will not be doing a binding once the blanket is turned right side out...you will have already taken care of that....but I will be posting that on Part II of the Receiving Blanket Tutorial so don't worry about that yet)

And here is another picture of the top for reference

I think maybe I will try to do a small video click and post it on the blog to go back over the pinning process....It might be easier to understand that way